


Why?

by queenmidalah



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-05 01:54:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1801129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenmidalah/pseuds/queenmidalah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma Simmons is injured protecting Grant Ward. After all that he's done, he doesn't understand why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why?

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr prompt: Unintentional Heroism for Biospecialist.
> 
> As I mentioned when I answered this for the person- this went into a very different direction than I originally intended.

Grant Ward paced just outside of the medical lab that Stark had installed in Avengers Tower when he had remodeled the entire building after the attack in New York. He kept glancing to where the other members of the newly formed team were also standing. Leo Fitz kept glaring at him from the modified wheelchair he was in, still regaining his legs after what Ward had done to him and Jemma Simmons.

Phil Coulson was standing near the entrance to the medical lab, standing beside Clint Barton, the two quietly talking. Ward couldn't even bring himself to look at Skye or Melinda May, especially since they were standing with Natasha Romanoff.

This was meant to be his second chance. This was never supposed to happen, especially not to her. He was supposed to protect them again; to not allow things like this to happen.

After he had been taken down as a Hydra agent, he had not gone through the extensive torture and interrogation Coulson initially had threatened him with. After his trachea healed, he had been given a new variation of QNBT16. Not only was it a new variation, but a dosage level that he couldn't even remotely resist. He realized that after he had spilled every secret about Hydra and they discovered his emotions towards Skye were implanted in their own right by Garrett, that he didn't want to resist the drug. A pair of golden-brown eyes pleading with him as she screamed his name haunted his dreams. Hearing her voice telling Fitz that he didn't care about them or anything haunted his dreams as well and broke his heart all over again.

There was a reason he hadn't specified Simmons name to Raina when he explained how he infiltrated the Bus. He hadn't fully realized then exactly why, but now he knew.

He was in love with Jemma Simmons.

He had told Skye his feelings had been genuine, until he had been completely unmade after implants that had been put into him were removed by the remnants of SHIELD and he found out just how much of his actions had been nothing more than Garrett's grand plan to get what he needed so Hydra could take over. Garrett had just never expected him to actually fall for someone on his team. When Garrett realized he had feelings for someone, he implanted a redirection to focus on Skye. 

She was the asset that Garrett wanted. 

After the implants were removed and the serum had spilled all secrets he had. Those he hadn't even realized he had filtered into his brain. 

Coulson made the decision to give Ward a second chance, despite protest from almost everyone on the team. Except Simmons despite how she felt after what he did to her and Fitz.

They went after a Hydra faction trying to set up a base of operations in New York. They were able to easily over throw most of those that were there, but one had gotten the drop on a SHIELD soldier, grabbing their weapon. He had aimed at Ward, intending to kill the traitor, as he was called. He would have succeeded had it not been for Simmons.

Dammit, she never should have done it!

"She did it to save you," Skye spat at him. "Why? I have no idea."

He hadn't realized he had spoken aloud.

"Skye," Coulson said. "Stop."

"Why?" Skye asked. "He doesn't deserve to live. He is a traitor. Twice over. First to SHIELD and now to Hy--."

"I said stop," Coulson snapped. "Ward is being given a chance to redeem himself."

"Then he should've taken the bullet," Fitz said.

"You think I wouldn't have?" Ward said, his voice bordering on a snarl. "She stepped between me and the bullet before I could move to stop her!"

"If Ward hadn't moved as quickly as he did, Agent Simmons would be dead right now," Bruce Banner said as he stepped out of the lab along with Stark's personal doctor.

"She was shot!" Antoine Tripplett spoke up. "Because of that asshole!"

"And short of being Captain America, the Winter Soldier, the Hulk, or Thor," Banner said. "No one could have turned her fast enough to keep her from getting shot."

Coulson lifted his hands to the rest of the team wanting to rip into Ward for Simmons getting shot further. At least May was keeping silent.

"Explain," Coulson said.

"Theshot was aimed for Agent Ward's heart," Banner said. "The trajectory of the bullet lowered and would have hit him lower in the chest, most likely puncturing a lung. Due to their height difference, Agent Simmons should have been shot in the head or the neck at the very least. Ward's movements to get her out of the way to either take the bullet himself or just get them both out of the way kept those kill blows from happening."

"She was still shot!" Fitz said.

"Yes. A wound she will survive," Banner said. "The bullet struck in her upper back. The impact of the bullet did do damage to her upper shoulder blade and clavicle. The bullet was blocked by her clavicle and we had to remove it. It'll be a painful recovery, but she will recover."

"Can we see her?" May finally asked.

"One at a time," Stark's doctor finally spoke up.

"Ward first," Coulson said. Trip, Fitz, and Skye immediately protested. Coulson turned to them with a look that warranted no argument. They still attempted to do so even as Banner escorted Ward in to see Simmons.

Ward didn't know why Coulson was torturing him by letting him come see Simmons in the state she was in. Maybe it was a way to remind him of what all he had done and the consequences they were facing because of it. As if he didn't already realize those consequences.

He pulled a chair over to sit beside Simmons' bed, hesitating before he took her hand in his. She was so pale and it scared the hell out of him.

"I... I don't even know what to say to you right now," he whispered, his thumb stroking her knuckles. "I didn't even realize how I felt completely until I saw how you acted towards me after what I did. I can never change what I did... but I knew I loved you. I didn't realize how much until you stepped between me and that bullet."

Tears formed in his eyes and he felt one slip down his cheek.

"Dammit, Jemma. Why?!"

"Because I love you," Jemma croaked.

"Wh... Jemma?" Ward sat forward to look at her.

"I hate you for what you did," she whispered, her voice rough from the tube that had been in her throat during surgery. "You tried to kill me. And Fitz. You betrayed us..."

More tears slipped onto Ward's face. "I know," he whispered. "Nothing I can do will ever--."

"I couldn't let them kill you," Jemma interrupted. She coughed from her throat being dry. Thankfully she was still drugged for pain, otherwise she would be in tremendous pain. Ward immediately got her some water to sip.

"I fell in love with you," Jemma whispered. "Some time ago. Despite all the hate I felt for what you did, I couldn't let them kill the man I love."

" ** _You_** could have died," Ward whispered harshly. "My death would have been justified, but yours... would have been senseless."

"Yours would be senseless to me," Jemma whispered.

Ward clasped her hand between both of his and lifted it towards his lips to press a kiss to her knuckles. "I plan on spending the rest of my life making up for everything I've done," he said. 

"I'll hold you to that."

**Author's Note:**

> This is a 'fic where Ward is finding redemption in a second chance with SHIELD. I am not against him finding redemption on the show, but I am also not against him being the ongoing villain, ala Lex Luthor was in Smallville. 
> 
> I am one of those that doesn't necessarily believe everything he did was due to conditioning and Garrett's manipulations, because at some point Ward had to make a choice in his life and he did. Regardless of what he felt he owed Garrett. 
> 
> However, for this fic, I played with the idea that Ward had implants put into him at some point that helped Garrett keep that hold over him that he never really knew about.


End file.
